In the Beginning
by warinbabylon
Summary: Just a short story that might have been in the beginning. The first story I wrote months ago


Disclaimer: This all belongs to BBC…I just play.  
  
Notes: This is just a short story from the bowels of the hard drive; the beginning of a story that was dropped, but seems like it can stand on its own. Barely.  
  
"Really, Theta: Inciting an argument in the High Council. Will you never learn?"  
  
Theta whipped around, his robes swinging wide. His orange and red headdress barely covered his dark hair that hung to his shoulders. The color of his robes and head covering brought out the blue in his eyes. He glanced at Castellan up and down and sighed. "Really, Castellan. Do you honestly think that I could answer an argument any other way. You have known my feelings toward Time Lord intervention policies since Academy."  
  
Castellan smiled and bent his head. "Yes…as did everyone. If given the chance, you would travel the universe, wouldn't you. Go out there with…" Castellan raised a hand and waved it toward the wall, indicating the universe. "There with…well…the other races."  
  
"This is a situation that we will never agree on."  
  
"This is an argument that we will always have."  
  
Theta nodded with a small smile. "That is true."  
  
With a nod to the surrounding plant life, Castellan sighed. "Intervention with a power such as ours would inflict harm…"  
  
"And non-intervention when we have the power is unpardonable. You know some of the occurrences…some of the situations that have occurred over the ages in the universe…could not have occurred without help to those civilizations. As an example, take the Great Terran War of the Third Age…they were undermanned…sorely poor with technology…"  
  
"Your preoccupation with Terran history and politics is infamous, Theta. But I will give you that the Terrans were most definitely the underdog in that situation. Where the help came from…Theta…can you honestly say it was a Time Lord…a Gallifreyan?"  
  
"No," Theta folded his hands across his chest. "No, I cannot." He glanced off at the large door that separated the Time Lord High Court from the central garden area. "We sit here, Castellan, in a sealed citadel on a planet on the edge of the galaxy and hold high court over 'lesser' civilizations in crimes of war and pain. And yet…what do we know of their civilizations? Do we know enough…do we feign to have all the answers about their culture so that we…WE…can hold judgment over them?"  
  
"We argued that same premise in Law."  
  
"Our law. We argued with our law, Castellan. If we were to argue it with the civilization's OWN law…" Theta groaned and lowered his hands. Castellan knew that if it had not been for the black gloves that he wore, indeed that they both wore, that Theta would make a fist. "Look…we have the knowledge without the ability to apply it…we have no…direction to apply the knowledge. In order to use justice properly, we need to pass judgment on the criminals using their own civilization's directives. And we can't do that…correctly…without knowing the application."  
  
Castellan grimaced. "And so…"  
  
"And so…we must mingle…we must feel…"  
  
"Feel!" Castellan nearly shouted. "Feel…Theta…" He grabbed his friend's arm and steered him away from the main path into an area of dense plant growth. "Feel, Theta. Listen to what you are saying…you are talking emotions. And you know that logical thought cannot give way to emotional upheaval."  
  
"We must feel their directions. We must know what drives them," Theta hissed. "And how better to understand…drive…than to open our selves to that which makes them what they are…their emotions. It is law that deigns like a king over its subjects the emotions. Logic reigns in feelings. That is all well fine and good, Castellan…"  
  
"Enough…"  
  
Theta sighed and lowered his head. After a moment, he smiled a rueful smile. "Again…an impass."  
  
"If you speak of ruling by emotion, then yes… an impass. Theta, you are a member of the High Council. It would behoove you to restrain yourself to those situations that the High Council oversees."  
  
"Ah, yes," Theta breathed. "Restraint: the calling card of a Time Lord. As you say…"  
  
Castellan smiled, breathing in the recycled air. Around them, plants lined the walk. Castellan nodded toward a woman and a small girl that approached the two men. "Your daughter and granddaughter await you, Theta. Maybe their agreeable presence might calm your heated temper."  
  
Theta turned and smiled at his daughter and the younger girl that held the woman's hand. "Yes. It will calm my temper…it always does. Until tomorrow?"  
  
"Tomorrow…and please…Theta…try and avoid that argument. As you friend, I am giving you council…"  
  
"And your council is taken," Theta smiled and extended his hand to Castellan. The other man took the hand willingly.  
  
As the other man moved off, his broad shoulders wading through the sea of plant life like a rudder in the sea, Theta held out his arm. His daughter immediately slipped her hand through the space created and allowed him to lead her away from the central plaza. "Father…"  
  
"Don't Elis…" he warned quietly. Upon hearing a little sigh, he glanced down at Elis. The eyes of his long forgotten mate glanced back up at him. They were a shade of blue deeper than his own. They also held a measure of annoyance of his treatment of her. "Forgive me, Elis…the day was not as relaxing as it could have been."  
  
"And understatement, again, Father," Elis smiled and glanced down at her daughter. The ten year old girl glanced back up at her mother with a smile. "Grandfather?"  
  
Theta grinned and released his daughter's hand and turned and scooped up the girl in his arms. "Yes, Susan?"  
  
Elis crossed her arms over her chest and glared at her father. "Do you insist calling her that ridiculous Terran name?"  
  
"It is one of her given names, Elis…must I remind you what your full name is?" Theta shook his head. "I think Rassilon was a tad bit crazed when he insisted our names include our rank and birth. What is it that you want, little one?" he addressed his granddaughter.  
  
"My friends say that you are insanity itself."  
  
Theta looked taken aback and squinted at his granddaughter. Elis laid her hand on Theta's arm. When he glanced at her, he could see the depth of pain in her eyes. "Her friend's parents are members of the Tribunal on the Vargas trial. Children…"  
  
"Out of the mouth of babes: truth," he grimaced, quoting from a Terran book. He let Susan slide to the ground. He thought for a moment and then extended his hand to her. "Are you afraid of a crazy old man, Susan?"  
  
"No…Doctor."  
  
"Och," Elis groaned. "You have been reading Terran tales to her again, Father."  
  
"She finds that Doctor fits me well. Let her call me what she will. I like it a touch better than my own name, I must say." He waited until his daughter eased next to him and embraced her quickly about the shoulders. "Let us go home, Elis. I am tired and wish to take off this headdress and robe."  
  
Elis nodded and began to walk again. She waited until they passed several groups of other Time Lords and Gallifreyans before she resumed her speaking. "Father…Lanch is home…"  
  
"Oh, he is…is he?" Theta said quietly, with a small smile on his face. "And I am not welcome."  
  
"You are welcome. He just wishes you to refrain from talking about politics in front of him, Susan or I. You know what he feels."  
  
"And he knows what I feel. We are on equal ground." Theta sighed. "I will restrain, Elis, for peace in your home."  
  
"Susinta? Look…it is your friends there at the spring. Go, meet them…your grandfather and I have to talk…" Susan took off at a run, her curly black hair blowing in the wind and brushing the last of the plant fronds. As the child ran off, Elis stopped her father with a hand on his arm.  
  
Theta knew the direction of the conversation before any words were spoken. "I will not stop speaking as I feel…nor will the others."  
  
"They will target you. Discredit you. Remove you from the Council. Lanch will have no choice."  
  
"Is he still the disagreeable man that he was?"  
  
"Yes…"  
  
"And yet, against all, you care for him. I never understood your attraction to him. It was very like your mother's attraction to me, I suppose. You remind me of her."  
  
"And yet, you still care for me."  
  
"You are my daughter, I love you…regardless of your choice of lifemate," Theta sighed. "But he cannot expect me to stop talking as I feel or as I think. There are others on the Council that feel as I do…"  
  
"But without you, they have no voice, Father. I just ask that you tread lightly. Protect yourself. They can remove everything from you."  
  
Theta smiled and patted his daughter's hand before he leaned into her and kissed her forehead. "Ease your mind…I will be on my best behavior this evening."  
  
** 


End file.
